Supporting our customers on their journey

Supporting
our customers
on their journey
Annual Report and Accounts 2011

Our business model
What we do
Manage & Transform
To improve quality and flexibility of service while
significantly reducing costs
Services provided
Service Desk, Managed Workplace, Managed
Network, Managed Datacenter, Managed
Applications and Support & Maintenance

Enhancing
our customers’
journey by:
• Innovating
• Managing cost
• Mitigating risk
• Improving their service

This creates
advantages for
their businesses:
• Smarter technology
• On time and on budget
• Better services
• Greater efficiencies
• Lower cost

We do this by:
• Using processes and tools
that help ensure the outcomes
• Collaborating with customers’
IT departments
• Securing the best product
for the solution through our
vendor independence
• Being flexible in our approach
• Hiring and retaining talent

The work we undertake is typically
• Technologically or logistically complex
• Multiple parallel projects
• Contract-based
• Uses our core assets

Consult & Change
Optimise technology, enabling
effective change
Services provided
Flexible Workplace, Borderless
Network, Dynamic Datacenter,
Unified Communications
& Collaboration and
Secure Information
The work we undertake
is typically
• Medium to high complexity
• Outcome-based projects
• Referrals or existing customers
• Uses our people’s technical skills

Source & Deploy
Address customer technology
requirements
Services provided
Smart Supply, Supply Chain Services,
Lifecycle Management, Software
Licensing and Compliant Disposals
The work we undertake is typically
• Medium to low complexity
• Medium to high volume
• Long-term repeat customers
• Uses our core assets

Revenue characteristics

How it supports our strategy

Predictability
Provides Computacenter with
long-term revenue visibility
Typical contract length of five years
Customer requirement not normally
affected by macro economy

Accelerating the
growth of our
contractual
services business

Repeatability
Delivering the predicted
outcome on time and budget
means we are well placed to
expand our scope of delivery
Typical project duration of 3-12 months

Growing
our profit
through increased
services and
high-end supply
chain sales

Strategic
objectives

Maximising
the return on
working capital
and freeing working
capital where not
optimally used

Project scale and value can be
affected by macro economy
Reducing
cost through
increased efficiency
and industrialisation
of our service
operations

Scalability
High customer loyalty allows us
to manage our revenue visibility
Order value varies significantly
Amount the customer
spends can be affected by
macro economy

Market growth drivers
Technological development
Our customers are experiencing increased demand for
the latest technology in order for them to remain competitive.

The market
Particularly in difficult economic times our customers look
to reduce their costs through IT innovations.

Geographical development
Our customers increasingly want us to deliver our offerings
to their locations worldwide, requiring us to expand our
global partnerships.

Selective outsourcing
There is less appetite to outsource IT to a single provider and
more for selective outsourcing, an environment we are well
placed to compete in.

Computacenter plc Annual Report and Accounts 2011

Supporting our customers on their journey
We help our customers’ businesses perform better, smarter
and deliver on time and on budget. We are Europe’s leading
vendor independent IT infrastructure services provider.
Our coverage
Luxembourg
Capellen

United Kingdom
Hatfield
Leeds
Manchester

Germany

Belgium
Brussels

Milton Keynes
Nottingham
Romford

Berlin
Erfurt
Frankfurt
Kerpen

France

Switzerland

Paris

Zurich

Spain

South Africa

Malaysia

Barcelona

Cape Town

Kuala Lumpur

Datacenter

Service Desk

Overview
01 Chairman’s statement
02 Operating review
14 External view of the market
by IDC

Operational
Command
Centre

Business review
16 Finance Director’s review
20 Risk management
22 Corporate Sustainable
Development (‘CSD’)
Governance
26 Board of Directors
28 Corporate governance
statement
32 Audit Committee report
34 Nomination Committee report
35 Remuneration Committee
report
43 Directors’ report

Supply Chain

Coverage

Financial statements
48 Independent auditor’s report
49 Consolidated income
statement
50 Consolidated statement
of comprehensive income
51 Consolidated balance sheet
52 Consolidated statement
of changes in equity
53 Consolidated cash flow
statement
54 Notes to the consolidated
financial statements
93 Statement of Directors’
responsibilities

94 Independent auditor’s report
95 Company balance sheet
96 Notes to the Company financial
statements
100 Group five-year financial review
100 Group summary balance sheet
100 Financial calendar
101 Corporate information


+6.6%

Revenue
(£m)
2011

2,852.3

2010

2,676.5

2009

2,503.2

2008

2,560.1

+12.6%

Adjusted* operating profit
(£m)
2011

53.9
42.1

+13.3%

Adjusted* diluted earnings per share
(p)
2011

37.4

2010

33.0

2009

27.7
21.0

Total dividend per share
(p)

+13.6%

2011

15.0

2010

13.2

2009
2008

11.0
8.2

Related subjects:
Corporate Sustainable Development – page 22
Governance – page 28

We continued to invest in our future, implementing our Group-wide
ERP system in the UK and Germany and further improving our
service delivery capabilities in all countries. We grew our international
service support operations in Barcelona and South Africa and we
acquired a significantly larger property in the UK for our recycling
operation, RDC. In total, we invested over £40 million of capital
in strategic projects during 2011. These investments, together
with those made in the recent past, have helped our results
with adjusted* profit before tax growing by 12.4 per cent to
£74.2 million and our annualised services contract base growing
by 6.0 per cent to £563.6 million.
We face 2012 with confidence, despite the unrelenting challenge
of slow, or even no growth in GDP in Western Europe. We are
focusing on those aspects we can control – customer support,
margin growth and cash generation in the main. We remain
dedicated to providing our customers with services that save
them money and help them be more competitive, and continue
to invest in our ability to support them.
In this report, you will find that we strive for clear and meaningful
description of all our activities and decisions, as well as continue
our commitment to uphold high standards of governance in line
with the UK Corporate Governance Code.
We are far from satisfied with anything we do. The competition
is fierce, the economic environment uncertain, but our employees
and customers have demonstrated resilience and loyalty, for which
I thank them wholeheartedly. We shall work hard to earn that
loyalty and in doing so, continue to deliver results that we can be
pleased with.

Greg Lock
Chairman
12 March 2012

* Adjusted profit before tax is stated prior to amortisation of acquired intangibles
and exceptional items. Adjusted operating profit is also stated after charging
finance costs on CSF.

Governance

2009


64.4

Business review

72.5

2010

2008

2011 was a good year for our Company, more so given the
extraordinary economic environment. Our German unit had an
outstanding year, growing revenue at 21.8 per cent in the face of
stiff competition. In the UK, our revenue declined by 12.9 per cent,
but we preserved our overall UK margin percentage and grew our
Services order book significantly, with six substantial contracts
closed in the last quarter alone. In France, continuous
improvement in operations, together with the acquisition of Top
Info, led to revenue growth of 33.1 per cent as well as enhanced
profitability. Our Belgian operation had its best year yet.

Overview

Delivering long-term
growth

Chairman’s
statement

2008

01

02


Operating
review

A focused team,
creating value

2011 strategic objectives

Accelerating the
growth of our
contractual
services business

Reducing cost
through increased
efficiency and
industrialisation of our
service operations

Progress against 2011 strategic objectives

In 2011, our Group contract base grew
by 6 per cent in constant currency. In
addition (as announced on 16 December
2011), the UK business has won a
number of additional Managed Services
contracts, which had not started at
year-end, therefore have not been
included in the contracted services base.
These wins, combined with other
important wins in Germany and France,
will provide robust contractual services
base and revenue growth in 2012. The
contracts also provide further evidence of
the continuing trend for large customers
to selectively outsource IT Managed
Services to ‘best in class’ providers such
as Computacenter.

We continue to invest and derive value
from the Shared Services Factory, our
industrialised approach, which helps to
standardise customer engagement,
service offerings and also reduce the cost
of service delivery. This includes
investments we have made in our
offshore service delivery capability, to
take advantage of the lower costs
available such as in South Africa.
In addition, we have made significant
investments in industry leading tools,
for example, a £10 million investment in
BMC Software to achieve further
efficiencies in our Managed Services
offering. These investments enable us
to offer an enhanced service at lower
cost in areas such as major incident
management and the remote
management of datacenter infrastructure.
These are ongoing initiatives, which take
time to implement and will enable
operational and cost benefits over the
medium and long term. We expect to
deliver improved services gross margins
over time, as these initiatives mature.

Key performance indicators

Increase contract base in
constant currency (£m)

Increase revenue per service head
(£’000/head)
564

2011

532

2010
2009
2008

+6.0%

486
446

93

2011
2010

88

2009

85

2008

86

+5.9%

03

Related subjects:
Our business model – Inside front
cover

Ensuring the
successful
implementation
of the Group-wide
ERP system

Adjusted operating cash flow of
£96 million in 2011 was substantially
ahead of adjusted profit before tax of
£74.2 million; a pleasing performance.
Most elements of the operating cash
inflow were similar to, or improved on the
2010 performance. However, working
capital movements showed an inflow of
£0.3 million, allowing for organic revenue
growth of 2.2 per cent, which is
encouraging. The working capital inflow
of £21.4 million in 2010 was exceptionally
strong, due to the collection of the trade
debtors following the sale of our trade
distribution business in November 2009.

Overall, 2011 Group revenue increased
by 6.6 per cent including acquisitions and
2.2 per cent excluding acquisitions, while
adjusted PBT grew by 12.4 per cent.
Group Services revenue as reported,
grew by 6.2 per cent including
acquisitions and 4.9 per cent excluding
acquisitions. Supply chain revenue
excluding acquisitions grew by
1.1 per cent. This combined with
robust control of SG&A costs resulted
in EBIT, as a percentage of net
revenue*, increasing from 6.6 per cent
to 6.9 per cent of sales.

The Group-wide ERP system is an
extensive IT implementation, as well as
a significant business process change.
The system covers virtually all of our
operating activities with entirely new
resource scheduling, call logging and
maintenance systems that are at the
heart of our business. The German
business went live at the end of January
2011 and the UK business went live at
the end of August 2011 – on schedule
without material disruption to either
business. France is now scheduled to go
live during 2013. With our two largest
countries live on the Group system, we
are running a project to align processes
across both businesses in order to
extract the anticipated efficiencies and
ease the French implementation; also to
ensure that the learning from the UK and
German implementations is applied for
future migrations in other countries.

Increase adjusted operating
cash flow (£m)

Increase EBIT as a percentage
of net revenue*

ERP
– delivery vs implementation plan

2008

79

-12.4%

6.6

2010
138

2009

6.9

2011

108

2010

6.0

2009
2008

+0.3pts

✓

H2

4.9

✓

H1

2011

2012

2013

* EBIT as a percentage of net revenue. Computacenter defines net revenue as
turnover less the cost of product for re-sale recognised as an expense.


96

2011

Our Executive team
Pictured left to right:
Henri Viard (Managing
Director, France)
Tony Conophy (Group Finance Director)
Neil Muller (Managing
Director, UK Sales & Marketing)
Mike Norris (Group CEO)
Oliver Tuszik (CEO, Germany)
Chris Webb (Managing
Director, UK Operations)
Mark Slaven (Group IS Director)

Business review

Growing our profit
margin through
increased services
and high-end supply
chain sales

Governance

Maximising the
return on working
capital and freeing
working capital where
not optimally used

Overview


04


Operating review continued

Delivering our
strategy

Group revenue by region

Group Overview
The Group’s adjusted* profit before tax grew by 12.4 per cent
to £74.2 million (2010: £66.1 million). While this outcome in
itself represents a strong performance, it is worth noting that
this is the sixth consecutive year that Computacenter has
delivered double digit profit growth. The Group’s adjusted*
diluted earnings per share (‘EPS’), increased by 13.3 per cent
to 37.4 pence (2010: 33.0 pence), largely as a result of the
increased profitability. This takes the compound annual EPS
growth over the last five years to 22.1 per cent.

4 1
3

2
1. United Kingdom
2. Germany
3. France
4. Belgium

£1,102.2m
£1,228.6m
£478.6m
£43.0m

On a statutory basis, taking into account amortisation of acquired
intangibles and exceptional items, Group profit before tax
increased by 10.3 per cent to £72.1 million (2010: £65.4 million)
38% and diluted EPS increased by 20.6 per cent to 39.3 pence
43% (2010: 32.6 pence).
17%
2%

Group revenue by business type
1

Group Services revenue, as reported, increased by 6.2 per cent
and by 4.9 per cent, excluding acquisitions. Once again, the
drivers for this growth in Services revenue were our businesses in
Germany, France and also Belgium. Services revenue in the UK
declined by circa 2 per cent, although encouragingly, our
Contractual Services revenues increased by 3.3 per cent.

6
2

5
4
3

1. Workplace
Desktop, laptop, monitor, printers, peripherals and
consumables.
2. Datacenter & Networking
Intel and Unix servers, storage, networking and security.
3. Software
4. Third party services
Third party resold services.
5. Professional services
Professional services delivered by Computacenter.
6. Managed services
Support and managed services delivered by Computacenter.

Group revenue, as reported, increased in 2011 by 6.6 per cent
to £2.85 billion (2010: £2.68 billion). The impact of currency on
the Group’s revenue was not significant. Excluding acquisitions,
growth on the previous year was 2.2 per cent. Group revenue
growth was driven by the very strong volume improvements in
France and particularly in Germany, which more than compensated
for the 12.9 per cent revenue decline in the UK, due to the adverse
economic climate.

25%

29%
12%
4%
8%
22%

The positive story of the year, for the Group as a whole, is that
the annual Services contract base increased by 6.0 per cent
in constant currency, compared to last year’s figures, to
£563.6 million. This growth does not yet take account of several
contracts secured towards the end of the year, for which revenue
generation is only due to commence in 2012. Contractual Services
make a fundamental contribution to the long-term success of
Computacenter, since it delivers better visibility of revenue. The
growth experienced in 2011 bodes well for the future and leaves
us confident that we are continuing to meet the IT needs of our
customers.
Our Group operating expenses (‘SG&A’) increased by 9.6 per cent.
This increase is due to a number of factors, including the impact
of the acquisitions, additional depreciation and amortisation
charges related to our ERP platform, together with some targeted
investments, primarily in Germany, to support and maintain the
growth in Services. In addition, there was an estimated increase
of circa £7 million due to a reclassification of costs, from cost of
sales to SG&A, following the migration in Germany and the UK,
to our common ERP platform.

Our net cash position is after a spend of £25 million on three
acquisitions during the year, as well as the purchase of a large UK
property for RDC, our recycling subsidiary, at a cost of £11 million.

Although we were already well placed in the managed services
market, these investments will optimise our ability to respond to
the latest trends in IT outsourcing. There is a growing appetite for
selective outsourcing, rather than single provider outsourcing
deals. We are increasingly being trusted and selected by
customers with existing experience of outsourcing relationships
and as such, many of our contracts are second generation, or
even more mature outsourcing agreements. Our European
head-quartered customers are more frequently requiring us to
deliver IT services on a global basis, which means we must have a
reliable and efficient global network of delivery partners. Our native
language, multi-lingual service desk facility in Barcelona has been
a critical resource in support of this trend.

The positive story of the year,
for the Group as a whole, is that
the annual Services contract
base increased by 6.0 per cent
in constant currency, compared to
last year’s figures, to £563.6 million.
The Board has decided to recommend a final dividend of
10.5 pence, bringing the total dividend paid for 2011 to
15.0 pence, representing a 13.6 per cent increase on the 2010
total dividend paid of 13.2 pence. The increase in dividend is
consistent with our stated policy of maintaining dividend cover
within our target range of 2 to 2.5 times. Subject to the approval of
shareholders at the Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’) on 18 May
2012, the proposed dividend will be paid on 15 June 2012 to
shareholders on the register as at 18 May 2012.
We continue to invest for further growth and the increased
acquisition activity in the year is in support of this objective.
We added scale to the Supply Chain business through the Top
Info acquisition in France, as well as a new customer base for
cross selling our services. Our mobility offerings have been
enhanced through the HSD acquisition in Germany, while Damax
in Switzerland supports specific customers based within this
region. While acquisitions have added scale and enhanced our
services, in line with our goal of helping customers’
competitiveness and saving them money, we will continue to invest
organically in strengthening our existing offerings and improving
our operational efficiency. For instance, our tools for automating
computer-based processes have been improved and advanced

Similarly, our datacenter facilities also enhance our Managed
Services offerings and customer relevance. In 2011, we deployed
approximately 900 new servers, storage and network devices
primarily at our Tier IV secure facility in Romford, UK. We will
continue to expand and upgrade these offerings to meet ongoing
customer demand.
In 2011, our new ERP system was deployed in both Germany
and the UK. We anticipate that France will migrate during 2013,
following the completion of both an office and warehouse
relocation during 2012. While much has been achieved, we are
now in a ‘bedding-in’ phase. As with all ERP deployments of this
scale and given the huge level of business change, there is still a
significant volume of work to be undertaken. We are however
encouraged that the experience we have gained from these two
deployments will help simplify the French migration.

Business review

following a £10 million investment over three years into our
BMC-based customer toolsuite. Our various service desks were
expanded significantly during 2011 to answer increased demand
from our Managed Services wins. Capacity at our multi-lingual
service desks in Barcelona has doubled to a total potential
capacity of 650 operators across two facilities. Additionally, our
service desk facilities in Erfurt, Berlin and Cape Town have all been
extended to accommodate a further circa 400 operators.

Governance

Our balance sheet has remained healthy. At the end of the year,
net cash prior to customer specific financing (‘CSF’) was
£136.8 million (2010: net cash of £139.4 million). Including CSF,
net funds were £113.6 million (2010: £111.0 million). The year-end
cash position continues to benefit, by approximately £45 million
(2010: £38 million), from the extended credit facility provided
by one of the major suppliers. As stated before, the sustainability
of these terms continues to remain uncertain.

Overview

05



06


Operating Review continued

United Kingdom
Revenue (£m)
2011

Revenue by business type
1,102.2

2010

1,265.4

2009

1,226.9

2008


£37.3m

1,391.2

Contract base

£244.8m

UK Operating Review 2011
In a particularly challenging market in the UK, total
revenue reduced by 12.9 per cent in 2011, to £1.10 billion
(2010: £1.27 billion). While both our Supply Chain and Services
revenues were lower, the decline, at 17.7 per cent in the Supply
Chain business, to £728.0 million (2010: £884.9 million) was
the primary driver for the overall revenue reduction in the UK.
Our Services revenue decreased only marginally by
1.7 per cent, to £374.1 million (2010: £380.5 million).
Encouragingly, adjusted* operating profit margin in the UK was
broadly maintained, with profit down by 14.0 per cent to £37.3
million (2010: £43.3 million). This is largely due to certain higher
volume one-off Supply Chain deals with low contribution levels in
the previous year. Profitability in the UK was further protected from
a greater decline by a 3.1 per cent reduction in SG&A, as a result
of lower commissions and bonuses.
The slight drop in UK Services revenue was primarily due to fewer
and smaller cabling projects and, following the normal trend, the
material decline in Supply Chain sales also led to a reduction in
Professional Services requirements.

1

2

1. Workplace
3. Software

3

24%
27%
11%

4

5

6

4. Third party Services

4%

5. Professional Services
6. Managed Services

8%
26%

decline and delivering a flat gross margin percentage performance
on 2010.
Although this improvement in contribution was partly due to the
absence of the previously mentioned high-volume, low-margin deals
seen in 2010, it was also influenced by an improvement in Solution
Sales and the optimised terms that we have negotiated with our
major vendors. Vendor terms are not guaranteed and they must be
frequently renegotiated, so such benefits cannot be relied upon.
Windows 7 and other new Microsoft offerings, continue to drive IT
transformation projects among our customer base and at an
increasing rate. We are well placed to meet this demand, which
provides us with comfort even in an economy where difficulties
remain. Customer desire to modernise their workplace and
Microsoft’s operating system support changes, are expected to
help the Supply Chain and Professional Services businesses in
2012. John Jester, General Manager of UK Enterprise and Partner
Group at Microsoft explains this encouraging opportunity:

“Microsoft Windows 7 is the world’s fastest growing operating
system in history yet many enterprise customers’ desktop PCs still
run on Windows XP – an 11-year old operating system that is
The most encouraging development this year in the UK was the
approaching end-of-life in only two years. To encourage corporate
3.3 per cent growth in Contractual Services revenue, coupled with customers to upgrade their systems to a modern platform that will
further contract wins in the latter part of the year. The level of
reduce costs, improve productivity and enable future growth,
reported growth in the Services contract base of 1.6 per cent to
Microsoft is working closely with Computacenter, a key strategic
£244.8 million (2010: £241.0 million), does not reflect all the
partner that has the expertise and capabilities to deliver great value
contracts concluded during the latter part of the year, as billing on
to our joint customers.”
a large portion of these deals will not commence until 2012. This
Customers increasingly wish to engage with Computacenter to
provides an early bolster for 2012 and improved predictability in
streamline their supply chain. For example, we were successful in
the years to come. The trend to conclude deals towards the end
securing a multi-million pound per annum supplier consolidation
of the year means it is too early to predict the potential for further
contract with a large broadcaster in the UK. We will help the
base growth in 2012, but the pipeline remains healthy.
broadcaster reduce the time spent managing procurement,
The new Contractual Services wins demonstrate customer
which will improve the quality of service and enable cost savings.
confidence in our business model. In this challenging economy,
The UK business has also experienced an increase in demand
our Contractual Services offerings continue to succeed in
from its customers to expand the delivery of IT services to global
attracting customers who are looking for innovative and pragmatic
locations – a trend we are seeing across the Group. This was
ways to reduce their IT cost and increase operational efficiency.
evidenced by a number of wins during 2011, including a managed
While our transactional Supply Chain and even Professional
service with an American multinational conglomerate for 75,000
Services businesses tend to mirror economic conditions, we
end-users in 36 countries. AstraZeneca was another large new
achieved more long-term revenue predictability during 2011. We
international win last year and we will be providing service desk
secured a number of significant deals, including a datacenter
and deskside support to their users in nine countries.
managed service with a global maufacturer of fuels, lubricants and
Our subsidiary RDC, which provides customers with secure and
additives, which will be delivered from our Tier IV facility in
environmentally appropriate solutions for their end-of-life IT equipment,
Romford. We also won a managed service with a leading
pharmacy-led high street health and beauty chain, covering 29,000 once again delivered strong performance, with revenue growth of
18.4 per cent over 2010. While their profit margins remained resilient
desktops and 1,600 servers. This contract includes a Windows 7
in 2011, RDC’s relocation in early 2012 to a recently acquired larger
transformation and started in September 2011.
and better single location in Braintree, Essex, should improve
At an underlying level, the Supply Chain business was not entirely
efficiency and generate further performance improvements in 2012
disappointing, with improved margins preventing gross margin
and beyond.

07

Overview


Smarter

Business review

“The managed services contract with
Computacenter helps make our IT operations
more agile, cost-effective and efficient. As
a result, we will be able to ensure that more
passengers reach their destination on time
as air traffic volumes grow over the next
three years.”

Business Advantages
• On time/on budget
• Lower cost
• Better services


Governance

Michael Ede,
Head of IT Services,
Gatwick Airport

08



Greater
“By using IT in a cost-effective
manner to streamline public
service delivery, we can
support front-line resources
and help improve the quality
of life in South Lanarkshire by
ensuring IT systems remain
available.”
Janice Woodley,
Technology Services Manager,
South Lanarkshire Council

Business Advantages
• Better services
• Greater efficiencies

09


Germany
1,228.6
1,008.9

2009
2008


£27.7m

933.7
835.0

Contract base

£260.8m

Germany Operating Review 2011
In the German segment, including acquisitions, overall adjusted*
operating profit for the year grew by a significant 39.2 per cent
to €31.9 million (2010: €22.9 million). Excluding the results
of acquisitions, HSD in Germany and Damax AG in Switzerland,
adjusted* operating profit grew by 26.1 per cent to €28.9 million
(2010: €22.9 million).
In contrast to the weak start experienced in 2010, 2011 began
buoyantly following a strong end to 2010 and we continued to
largely sustain this encouraging performance throughout 2011.
Total revenue in the year, for the segment as a whole, increased
by 20.3 per cent to €1,415.3 million (2010: €1,176.7 million) and
excluding acquisitions, the revenue growth was 17.8 per cent.
Much of this growth was delivered by the Supply Chain business,
with workplace and networking equipment sales driving a large
portion of the volume increase. Supply Chain revenue, for the
segment as a whole, increased by a noteworthy 24.3 per cent
and excluding acquisitions, on a like-for-like basis, Supply Chain
revenue for the year grew by 21.4 per cent.
While encouraging in itself, this growth also stimulated our Services
business. Not only did a major supplier of electronic components
to the automotive industry award Computacenter Germany
a three-year workplace equipment supply contract, but the
relationship has evolved to include additional consultancy and
related support services.
Services revenue, overall, grew by a healthy 12.3 per cent to
€445.5 million (2010: €396.7 million) and excluding acquisitions,
growth in Services revenue was 10.6 per cent. Applying the same
exclusions, our Services contract base grew by 6.2 per cent to
€308.0 million (2010: €290.0 million). However, this contract base
growth hides the materiality of the Services wins concluded within
the second half of the year, as most of these contracts will only
generate revenue from 2012 onwards. The total lifetime contract
value of all the Contractual Services wins awarded in 2011
amounted to approximately €250 million. This exceptional and
sudden volume increase presented us with some resource and
business take-on challenges. Although this caused some erosion
to our Services margins, we started 2012 with an unhindered
opportunity to optimise this growth.
The material wins achieved in 2011 represent the investments we
made to enhance our Managed Services portfolio and deliver more
capability. These wins also reflect growing demand from our
existing customers for IT service delivery across a broader range
of geographies and our ability to respond to these requirements.

1

2

1. Workplace
3. Software

3

19%
35%
9%

4

5

6


6%

6. Managed Services

8%
23%

These market drivers resulted in our largest value, service desk
contract win ever awarded by a global manufacturer within the
aerospace sector. This five-year contract has an annual contract
value of €13 million and will draw on all the Group’s core
capabilities across all its European operations. Additionally, a large
German re-insurance provider awarded Computacenter Germany
a four-year service desk contract, which will be supported
internationally from our expanded Berlin service desk.
Both these customers have extensive prior experience of
outsourcing critical IT functions to external providers and we
believe their decision to partner with Computacenter demonstrates
growing market confidence in the quality and maturity of our
Services. This is further supported by independent market analysis
undertaken by Experton, which rated our offerings for managed
workplace services, as the most outstanding amongst our 13
primary competitors.
The need to meet growing customer demand and fulfil a sudden
increase in Services business take-on requirements, while
migrating onto the ERP platform, unsurprisingly resulted in a rise
of SG&A.
However, more than half of the SG&A increase is due to a
combination of the reclassifications between cost of sales and
SG&A, the impact of acquisitions and expenses relating to
amortisation of our new ERP platform. Excluding these impacts
and at an underlying level, the SG&A in Germany grew by
approximately 7 per cent. We will continue to invest in improving
the efficiency of our take-on process, as well as our general
technical resources, to enable our future growth aspirations.
The HSD acquisition in April 2011 has enabled us to establish our
mobility and ‘bring-your-own’ device offerings, resulting in very
positive responses from our existing customers, as well as the
wider market. This business has now been fully integrated into the
German business.
From January 2011, the activities of Computacenter Luxembourg
have been reported as part of the German business. Towards the
end of July 2011, Computacenter acquired a majority stake in
Damax AG in Switzerland and it was similarly considered
appropriate to report this business performance as part of
Computacenter Germany. Both of these businesses are already
showing encouraging contributions to our German reporting
sector.

Business review

2010

Governance

2011

Overview



Revenue (£m)

10



France
Revenue (£m)


2011

478.6

2010
2009
2008


£6.0m

359.6
319.4
308.2

Contract base

£48.8m

France Operating Review 2011
Computacenter France, including Top Info’s contribution for
three quarters of 2011, delivered an adjusted* operating profit
of €6.9 million (2010: €1.2 million). More than half of this profit
improvement was delivered organically, which represents an
encouraging performance for both the pre and post-acquisition
business.
We achieved another year of good revenue growth with revenue
in our existing French business increasing by 6.5 per cent, again
outperforming the French market convincingly. Total reported
revenue, including the three quarters of Top Info, increased by
31.4 per cent to €551.3 million (2010: €419.4 million).
Including the Top Info acquisition, for three quarters of the year,
Supply Chain revenue increased significantly by 35.5 per cent, with
an increase of 7.1 per cent to the Supply Chain revenue of the
business, excluding Top Info. Services grew by 11.1 per cent and
without Top Info, Services revenue increased by 3.9 per cent.
The significant opportunity of deploying Computacenter’s Services
offerings to Top Info clients is only just beginning, which bodes well
for our Services business during 2012 and beyond. Full exploration
of this opportunity should improve the 13.9 per cent (2010: 16.5
per cent) Services revenue mix.
The shift in business mix during 2011 is attributable to the strong
Supply Chain nature of Top Info. The material revenue growth in
the Supply Chain business came largely from improved sales of
software and enterprise equipment and to a lesser extent from
workplace Supply Chain sales. Supply Chain activity with the
primary national procurement agencies for the French public sector
has been encouraging and we feel very well placed to gain from
future government refresh initiatives.

1

1. Workplace
3. Software

2

45%
17%
20%

3

4 5

6


4%

6. Managed Services

6%
8%

We have increased the cross-selling Services to our traditional
Supply Chain customers. For example, at the end of 2010, we
announced that we had been awarded a three-year global software
licensing contract with a major energy utilities company. In 2011,
we went on to win a separate three-year Services contract,
extendable to eight years, for the delivery of a full managed service.
This evolution is also occurring within the private sector as
evidenced by a three-year contract win with a major corporate and
investment bank within the French financial sector. We will be
providing desk and deskside support to their users.
Our annual Contractual Services base has grown to €58.4 million
(2010: €47.1 million). However, a large proportion of recent
Managed Services wins will only commence revenue generation
during 2012 which, going forward will help boost the Services
business further and have not been included in the 2011
Contractual Services base.
As can be expected with strong revenue growth, commission
earnings during the year were higher. This was the primary
contributor for the 3.6 per cent increase in the SG&A of the existing
business’ SG&A, while the SG&A of the post acquisition business
increased by 28.8 per cent. We have also continued to invest in
strengthening our salesforce during the year, with returns
anticipated from 2012 onwards.
The sales functions of Top Info and the original Computacenter
France have now been combined into a single operation and the
businesses were merged on 30 December 2011. This has
completed the integration of Top Info, which went smoothly,
retaining all current major customers.

11

Overview


Larger

Business review

“Computacenter has a client-centric
focus and a can-do attitude. It helps us
safeguard the stability of our production
IT infrastructure and stay on budget for
operational expenditure.”

Business Advantages
• On time/on budget
• Better services


Governance

Matthew Oakeley,
Head of Group IT,
Schroders

12



Lower
“In our efforts to increase our presales
capabilities we developed a new managed
printing services offering with some
immediate successes at customers
like Alpha Card (a joint venture between
American Express and BNP Paribas Fortis)
where we conducted a printing audit and
closed a contract delivering the customer
a minimum 25% printing cost reduction.”
Alberto Leone,
ICT Officer,
Alpha Card

Business Advantages
• Smarter technology
• Lower cost

13


Belgium
Revenue (£m)
2011

43.0

2010
2009
2008


£1.6m

Overview

42.6
23.2
25.7

Contract base

£9.2m

1

1. Workplace
3. Software

2

3

39%
29%
7%

4 5 6


4%

6. Managed Services

4%
17%

We are increasingly delivering a wider suite of services and
solutions to our customers. This expanding portfolio is
demonstrated by a turnkey project with the city of Wavre, which
includes virtualisation, storage, networking and IP telephony
services as well as Supply Chain.

Supply Chain revenue reduced by 2.9 per cent to €38.8 million
(2010: €40.0 million). However, on the upside, our Services
business grew by 10.3 per cent to €10.6 million
(2010: €9.7 million), due to growth in both Professional
and Managed Services.

As with the rest of the Group, we are experiencing growing
demand for our services to be delivered across a wider geographic
scale, as evidenced by a contract recently agreed with a
multinational biopharmaceutical manufacturer, headquartered in
Brussels. As part of the €3 million deal, we will be providing the
customer with workplace services across its European locations.

Outlook statement
The Board believes that despite the current economic climate,
there would need to be further deterioration in this environment for
its expectations not to be met this year and the Board is confident
about gaining further progress during 2012. The Group enters
2012 buoyed by the recent contract wins, an improving position
in the UK and continuing growth rates in France and Germany.
The high level of activity across the Group means that the
operational challenges facing us this year, should not be
underestimated. In the UK, we are incorporating last year’s record
Managed Services wins. In France, we are centralising all our
logistics facilities into a single operation centre, relocating the
whole head office and sales functions, as well as preparing to
migrate the French operation to the Group ERP platform during
2013. In Germany, the growth we experienced in 2011 and which
has continued in the early part of 2012 requires our facilities and
technical resources to expand. At a Group-level, customer
demand remains to drive the rapid expansion of our Group Service
Desk, at both existing and new locations.

We continue to invest to improve the services we offer customers
and maximise Computacenter’s long-term growth potential. We
are delighted with the strong customer demand for our service
offerings, which we confidently believe enable them to reduce their
operating costs, in the long term. Our new business pipeline for
2012 looks potentially as exciting, if not more so, than that which
we achieved in 2011. The agenda we have set ourselves is
ambitious and not without risk, but we believe that the combination
of strong customer demand, our operational track record and the
strength of our balance sheet, all bode well for Computacenter’s
aspiration of delivering sustainable EPS growth.

Mike Norris
Chief Executive
12 March 2012
* Adjusted profit before tax and EPS is stated prior to amortisation of acquired
intangibles and exceptional items. Adjusted operating profit is also stated after
charging finance costs on CSF.

Business review

This result is particularly pleasing, as we maintained overall
revenues of €49.5 million (2010: €49.6 million). Our 2010 revenues
were influenced to a significant extent, by a one-off Supply Chain
sale, at a low margin. Generally, the quality of the revenue earned
in the year improved.

Governance

Pleasingly, Professional Services revenue did not, as would be
the anticipated trend, follow the Supply Chain revenue. The
Professional Services revenue growth came from projects delivered
to new customers, while our Managed Services contract base
grew by more than 30 per cent. We also successfully extended our
contract with SWIFT for a further three years, based on our existing
10-year relationship.


Belgium Operating Review 2011
Our Belgium operation delivered an outstanding adjusted*
operating profit improvement of 264 per cent, recording an
operating profit of €1.8 million (2010: €0.5 million). After taking
into account certain unusual items in 2011, at an underlying
level, the operational profit improvement on last year was
approximately €1 million.

14


External view of the market by IDC

2011 – a year of retrenchment
The economic recovery that followed the ‘credit crunch’ and the downturn of 2009 stimulated IT spend during 2010, but this
recovery slowed during 2011 with a consequent lessening of business and consumer confidence, which resulted in corporate
IT budgets being reined back as 2011 progressed. Although 2011 began as a year in which enterprises had bullish plans for
maintaining and increasing IT spend, the year ended with economic and political uncertainty in the UK and in some key European
geographies, causing enterprises to control their IT spend more tightly than they had expected, or even to reduce that spend.
Anticipated levels of GDP growth failed to materialise as business and consumer confidence was hit by the growing sovereign
debt crisis and by lowered demand caused by cutbacks in spending in the public and private sectors alike. Filtering down from
macro-economic level to overall IT spending, the result of these shifts was a lower than anticipated IT spending growth in 2011
– which stood at 1.8 per cent for Western Europe, and 2.6 per cent for EMEA overall. Such low growth posed problems to many
players within the market – especially on the back of several tough years.
IDC estimates that the overall UK IT services market growth was 1.1 per cent in 2010 and only 0.3 per cent in 2011 – 0.9 per cent
and 1.2 per cent for Western Europe. This uncertainty and lowered levels of confidence remain in place in early 2012, prompting
many organisations to set cautious IT budgets for 2012.

Tough times ahead present opportunities
Although 2011 was a tough year for IT suppliers, and although
2012 will be somewhat tougher, IDC does not believe that 2012
will witness a fall in demand of the scale we saw during the 2009
downturn. For example, 2009 saw a 2.8 per cent decline in IT
services demand in the UK, whereas IDC expects the equivalent
decline to be 1.9 per cent in 2012. It is worth noting that
Computacenter has little exposure to customer application
development, the IT services market segment expected to see
the worst declines in demand during 2012. Moreover, there remain
pockets of market growth to be exploited by vendors in 2012.

UK IT services market growth
was 1.1 per cent in 2010 and
only 0.3 per cent in 2011 –
0.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent
for Western Europe
Most enterprises reined in their IT spending during 2011 as the
year progressed, so although demand levels that vendors such
as Computacenter will experience during 2012 will be somewhat
lower than the demand in 2011, it should not come as a shock:
2012 budgets should mostly be confirmation of the existing
lockdown, rather than a bolt from the blue. As such, we should
look at 2012 as a continuation of the tough times we have
lived through in recent years – only a little more pronounced.

The ‘cloud’ is now real in the sense that most CIOs finally
understand what it can do for them in a practical way. It is also
here to stay – and won’t disappear as a fad created by and to the
benefit of the IT industry. In fact, IDC believes that business will
increasingly incorporate cloud computing as a core delivery model
for their IT and this will be reflected in their IT services spending.
Within Europe, most companies now incorporate cloud into their
services investment, which represents a tremendous opportunity
for services providers. Indeed, more than two-thirds of Western
European companies already have a corporate cloud strategy in
place today. In addition, cloud is one of the few areas of spending
that enterprises don’t expect to cut in the event of the economic
outlook deteriorating during 2012. Not only that, but the transition
to cloud-based IT infrastructures and the subsequent management
of these infrastructures requires a significant initial investment in IT
services by organisations, followed by continuous levels of service
spend to manage and improve the cloud-based infrastructure of
the future. IT services companies such as Computacenter should
benefit both from the demand for cloud related professional
services, but also from subsequent demand for cloud-related
managed services.

Beyond cloud – other opportunities remain for good
growth in 2012
Whilst IDC believes that cloud is now a mainstream technology,
accepted and indeed welcomed by both IT management and
corporate management, it is not the only revolution happening
in IT today. One of the main trends we see – and one that has
become increasingly important over the past two years – is the
‘consumerisation’ of corporate IT. We define ‘consumerisation’
Moreover, difficult times bring opportunities as well as threats to
as employees bringing personal devices into the workplace and
the IT and IT services industry. Many organisations will need to
using ‘Web 2.0’ social applications (such as Facebook, LinkedIn,
invest in 2012 to make their IT infrastructures more agile and
etc) in the workplace. This is without doubt happening now, at all
flexible, in order to support business expansion or to allow
levels of the organisation, whether the IT department likes it or not.
mergers, acquisitions or indeed divestments. New technologies
If left unmanaged, IDC believes consumerisation will overwhelm
are also arriving which are stimulating demand for both products
the CIO’s agenda, causing significant operational problems to
and associated services – both in implementing the new
the corporate IT infrastructure and reducing the efficiency of the
technologies and in subsequently managing them and integrating
organisation’s day-to-day operations. Consumerisation seems
them with the business.
attractive, but it can create as many problems as it solves,
These new technology waves include virtualisation, consumerisation, making this a top priority for IT services buyers in 2012 – and thus
business analytics, and social media to name but a handful. But
a major opportunity for IT services vendors. Not least, security
the most significant by far is the arrival of ‘cloud computing’.
and complexity issues caused by consumerisation will need to be


15

Beyond consumerisation we see 2012 as being the year
of ‘Big Data’
It is a well-known fact that the amount of data held by
organisations is expanding dramatically (IDC expects the volume
of digital content will grow to 2.7ZB worldwide, up 48 per cent
from 2011), creating vast data sets — or ‘big data’ — which in turn
creates need for additional storage, data warehouses, analytics
and other technology investments in European organisations.
However, one issue is that the data comes from an increasingly
diverse variety of sources — IDC expects that more than 90 per
cent of data will be unstructured and based on social media and
Web-enabled workloads. The other issue is the velocity, or speed
and frequency, with which the data is delivered and bombards
organisations that are trying to assess the importance of the data,
analyse it and act upon it.
Helping organisations understand what value they can get out
of data and how they can bring it into decision processes, help
drive efficiencies and reduce cost, or help create new business
propositions and drive top line growth, will be a major service
opportunity in 2012.
Translating ‘big data’ into actionable business information can
help organisations address both the cost-cutting agenda and the
‘growth’ agenda (in which IT investment aims to grow corporate
revenues or to drive greater client loyalty/satisfaction). However,
the opportunity at this stage will be to help organisations
understand how they can use big data, how they integrate it with
other BI/BA efforts in the organisation, and for the more advanced
provide the skills for the new analytics technologies that are in very
short supply.
More tactical opportunities will also appear in 2012 around
Unified Communications & Collaboration solutions (UCC) as
a way to enable flexibility within the enterprise whilst cutting down
on the time and money spent on travel. This, just as with cloud,

As we have seen, this means being able to incorporate cloud
within the solutions offered in order to lower the price point,
increase flexibility and reach new markets.

the opportunity at this stage will be
to help organisations understand
how they can use big data
What shape will this take?
IDC believes this will translate into a different services offering from
vendors. On the professional services side, successful vendors will
be those who can not only offer but demonstrate a quick return
on investment. The days of ‘strategic consulting engagements’ are
not gone; but buyers will want to attach practical business value to
their consulting spending.
On the managed services and support side – contracts are likely to
be more focused and therefore smaller in length as well as scope.
It is worth noting that those vendors focused on managed services
– such as Computacenter – were already offering shorter contracts
(between three and five years) – more closely mapped to market
requirement for some time. The trend towards multi-sourcing will
continue – as buyers see the value in best of breed vendors for
logical ICT silos that are applications, network & communications
and IT (desktop to datacenter).
There is no getting away from the fact that IT is central to not
only our corporate life but increasingly our personal life too. The
consequence of that increased maturity is that end-users are
much more demanding than ever. This will not stop. The impact
of cloud and increased competitive pressure will make things
much more difficult for vendors. Only the best vendors – willing
to change and able to offer innovative solutions – will fare well
in 2012, which is set to be a difficult year, and yet one with
some significant areas for opportunity for IT services suppliers.

Lionel Lamy
IDC Research Director,
European Software & Services

Business review

The consumerisation challenge will drive investment in, for
instance, virtual desktop solutions that enable data security by
taking it away from the physical device. We view virtualisation – in
all parts of the infrastructure – from the datacenter to the desktop,
as being a stepping stone towards cloud. This will represent
significant growth opportunities for vendors to allow their client
base to achieve the cost cutting required whilst providing them
with a robust, flexible infrastructure able to not only support their
business, but enable it to grow.

All of these trends represent major opportunities for service
providers – despite the tough market conditions we anticipate.
To ride the storm in 2012, IDC believes the key is for vendors to
offer a breadth of services for enterprises to choose from – different
models from traditional to cloud and even ‘blended’. Another key
is for vendors to avoid focusing solely on price – important as it
might be – and keep focusing on demonstrating the value and
quality of their offering. They must become the trusted adviser that
client can rely on to help them navigate through the tough times.

Governance

As such, consumerisation will create significant
opportunities for vendors because enterprises will need help
in understanding the potential impact on their organisation
(creating professional services opportunities) and managing
those consequences (creating opportunities to sell follow-on
managed services/outsourcing). Both professional services
and managed services/outsourcing are key elements of
Computacenter’s portfolio.

will put extra pressure on the network and related services –
which will become vital for all businesses. Without a robust network
delivering quality services, businesses lose opportunities.


addressed urgently if CIOs are to retain control of their workloads.
Consumerisation will shift the services focus to data privacy,
compliance, and data loss prevention as opposed to managing the
physical device. Finally, interoperability issues — getting corporate
applications to work with multiple devices — will remain as long
as new devices are being launched.

Overview

Related subjects:
Our business model - Inside front cover

16


Sustainable
revenue growth

Finance
Director’s review
Table 1
Group Revenues £m

Half 1

Half 2

Total

1,222.2
1,288.8
1,365.3
5.9%

2009
2010
2011
2011/10

1,281.0
1,387.7
1,487.0
7.2%

2,503.2
2,676.5
2,852.3
6.6%

Table 2
Adjusted profit before tax £m
Half 1

2009
2010
2011
2011/10

%

Half 2

%

Total

%

18.2
21.2
26.6
25.1%

1.5
1.7
1.9

36.0
44.9
47.6
6.3%

2.8
3.2
3.2

54.2
66.1
74.2
12.4%

2.2
2.5
2.6

Table 3
Revenues by country £m
2011

2010

Half 1

UK
Germany
France
Belgium
Total

Related subjects:
Our business model – Inside front cover
Risk – page 20
Governance – page 28
Directors’ report – page 43

Tony Conophy
Finance Director

Half 2

Half 1

Half 2

547.3
580.4
219.7
17.9
1,365.3

554.9
648.2
258.9
25.0
1,487.0

651.9
457.2
164.2
15.5
1,288.8

613.5
551.7
195.4
27.1
1,387.7

Turnover and profitability
In 2011, Computacenter Group delivered turnover growth and the
sixth successive year of profit growth.
At a headline level, turnover grew by 6.6 per cent to £2.85 billion,
although on a like-for-like basis (excluding acquisitions), turnover
growth was 2.2 per cent.
The overall Group performance resulted from a mixed performance
across our main geographies. Our German business was the main
growth driver with a buoyant market and share gains driving
revenue growth in all business lines, however weak infrastructure
spending in the UK drove a contraction in the UK supply chain and
professional services revenues.
Adjusted profit before tax improved by 12.4 per cent from
£66.1 million to £74.2 million. This increase was achieved despite
additional depreciation and amortisation charges of approximately
£3.4 million following the go-live of our German and UK businesses
onto our new ERP platform and related infrastructure.
After taking account of exceptional items and increased
amortisation of acquired intangibles following our acquisitions
in the year, statutory profit before tax increased by 10.3 per cent
from £65.4 million to £72.1 million.
Adjusted operating profit
Statutory operating profit increased from £65.9 million to
£71.9 million. However, management measure the Group’s
operating performance using adjusted operating profit, which is
stated prior to amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional
items, and after charging finance costs on customer specific
financing (‘CSF’) for which the Group receives regular rental
income. Gross profit is also adjusted to take account of CSF
finance costs. The reconciliation of statutory to adjusted results
is further explained in the segmental reporting note (note 3)
to the financial statements. For the purposes of this statement,
all subsequent references are to adjusted measures.

UK
Due to weak demand for infrastructure spending, particularly from
Financial Services and Government customers, UK revenues
contracted in 2011 by 12.9 per cent, reducing to £1,102.2 million.
Supply chain sales decreased by 17.7 per cent, although the rate
of decline slowed progressively in each quarter of the year. A
similar contraction in professional services revenues resulted in a
reduction in overall services revenues, by 1.7 per cent. The growth
in support and managed services revenues of 3.3 per cent does
not fully reflect the progress made in 2011, with a number of
significant contracts won in Q4 that will not contribute to our
revenues and contract base until 2012.
Despite the reduction in revenues, gross margins remained robust,
with our adjusted gross profit margin increasing from 14.0 per cent
to 15.2 per cent mainly due to a higher mix of services sales and
an improved supply chain margin rate due to the absence of some
large, low margin deals, particularly in software. Robust
management of our adjusted operating expenses (‘SG&A’) led to
a reduction of 3.1 per cent in 2011. This, together with our focus
on margin return, has ensured that overall adjusted operating profit
reduced broadly in line with revenue, by 14.0 per cent from
£43.3 million to £37.3 million.
Germany
The pace of growth in our German business increased in
2011. Revenue, as reported, grew in 2011 by 21.8 per cent
to £1,228.6 million (2010: £1,008.9 million). The revenue impact
of acquisitions (HSD in Germany and Damax in Switzerland) and
currency movements were not significant.
Overall, supply chain revenues increased by 25.9 per cent
including acquisitions, with services revenues growing by 13.7
per cent. Whilst the market in Germany was particularly buoyant
in 2011, our share of the market has also increased. The gross
margin return of the business reduced, partly due to the increased
mix of supply chain revenues, and partly due to margin erosion
in services, where the pace of growth impacted our efficiency
of business take-on resources.
SG&A increased by £20.3 million to £129.6 million
(2010: £109.3 million). Approximately £7 million of this increase
is due to reclassifications between cost of sales and SG&A from
alignment arising from our ERP project. Approximately £5 million
arises from the impact of acquisitions and expenses relating to
amortisation of the new ERP platform. The underlying growth in
the German SG&A cost base of £8 million relates to investments
in the pre-sales and business take-on teams to support the
growth in the services business. Overall, the German segment
operating profit increased by 40.9 per cent from £19.7 million
to £27.7 million, with the organic growth in our German business
augmented by the profit generated by our acquisitions (HSD
in Germany and Damax in Switzerland).

Following a reduction in 2010, the gross profit return in France
recovered in 2011 to 10.6 per cent, due largely to a focus on
margin management in services together with the improved mix
of enterprise product sales. SG&A grew in France principally
due to the Top Info acquisition, with SG&A in our existing French
business increasing by 4.9 per cent, mainly due to increased
commission payments linked to the improvement in gross margin.
The operating profit of the combined business increased from
£1.0 million to £6.0 million, with the contribution from Top Info
largely matching the organic growth in profits in the existing
Computacenter France business.

Overview
Overview

As a result of the improved profitability of the business, and an
improvement in management’s view of the future performance of the
combined entity, a deferred tax asset of £2.0 million in respect of
losses has been recognised, and disclosed as an exceptional gain.
At the end of 2011, the Computacenter and Top Info businesses
were merged, and no longer generate independent cash flows.
The goodwill arising from the Top Info purchase has therefore
been assessed on the combined cash flows of the enlarged
Computacenter France business.

Governance

From 1 January 2011, the management of Computacenter
Luxembourg has been transferred from Belgium to Germany.
As a consequence, Luxembourg is reported as part of the German
segment. The comparative segmental information in 2010 has
been restated to reflect this change.

France
The revenue in the French segment increased by 33.1 per cent
in the year. In April 2011, the Group acquired Top Info SAS, which
contributed revenues of £90.7 million in the year. Encouragingly,
like-for-like revenues from our existing French business grew by
7.9 per cent. Supply chain revenue increased by 8.4 per cent prior
to acquisitions, mainly due to growth in software and enterprise
product sales. Services revenue grew by a more modest 5.2 per
cent consolidating the gains made in 2010.

During 2011, the French business committed to move to a new
warehouse and office premises and the combined business
is expected to move during the first half of 2012.
Belgium
Reported revenue increased by 0.9 per cent to £43.0 million
(2010: £42.6 million). It is pleasing that the mix of revenue in 2011
generated healthy gross margin (2010 included a very large low
margin supply chain deal with a single customer).
Gross margin return on sales for Belgium overall improved from
7.6 per cent to 10.7 per cent. SG&A, however, increased by
7.8 per cent mainly due to increased commission costs on the
increased gross margin performance.
Overall, therefore, operating profit improved from £0.4 million in
2010 to £1.6 million in 2011. Although approximately £0.3 million
of this profit growth was due to factors that are not expected to
recur, the majority of the growth represents underlying
improvement in the business.
Exceptional items
In line with the requirements of IFRS3 Revised, acquisition-related
costs are expensed in the period in which they are incurred.
The Group has recorded £1.0 million acquisition-related costs for
both successful and aborted acquisitions within exceptional items.
Due to circumstances arising after the acquisition date, the
performance criteria required to trigger deferred consideration of
€1.0 million that were previously expected to be achieved, were
not met. As a result, the deferred consideration liability recognised
has been reversed and the £0.9 million gain in the income
statement has been recorded as an exceptional item.


Restatement and classification of costs
In the prior year financial statements, distribution costs were
shown below gross profit, however, management monitor the
performance of the business by including such costs within gross
profit. As a result, these costs have been included in cost of sales
in 2011, and 2010 has been restated accordingly.

17

Business review
Business review


18


Finance Director’s review continued

Table 4
Adjusted operating profit by country £m
2011
Half 1

Half 2

%

16.7
8.4
0.2
0.3
25.6

3.0
1.4
0.1
2.0
1.9

20.6
19.3
5.8
1.2
46.9

3.7
3.0
2.2
4.8
3.2

Half 1

UK
Germany
France
Belgium
Total

%

%

Half 2

%

18.1
3.4
(1.2)
0.3
20.6

2.8
0.8
(0.7)
1.8
1.6

25.2
16.3
2.2
0.1
43.8

4.1
3.0
1.1
0.5
3.2

2010

UK
Germany
France
Belgium
Total

Additionally, the statutory tax charge benefits from two items of
an exceptional nature. Firstly, the deferred tax asset in respect of
losses in Germany was reassessed in line with management’s
view of the entity’s future performance. Where the reassessment
exceeds the losses utilised in the year, the change in recoverable
amount of the deferred tax asset is shown as an exceptional
item. Secondly, the improved profitability in France, together
with an improved outlook for the combined French entity’s future
performance has resulted in the initial recognition of a deferred tax
asset in respect of losses. The combined impact in the income
statement is shown as an exceptional item.
Finance income and costs
Net finance income of £0.2 million was earned on a statutory
basis in 2011 (2010: net finance costs of £0.5 million).
This takes account of finance costs on CSF of £1.5 million
(2010: £2.1 million). On an adjusted basis, prior to the interest
on CSF, net finance income increased from £1.6 million in 2010
to £1.7 million in 2011.
Taxation
The effective adjusted tax rate for 2011 was 21.7 per cent
(2010: 23.1 per cent). The Group’s tax rate continues to benefit
from losses utilised on earnings in Germany and this year in
France and further benefits from the reducing corporation tax rate
in the UK.
Deferred tax assets that have been recognised in respect of losses
carried forward increased to £15.4 million (2010: £11.3 million).
In addition, at 31 December 2011, there were unused tax losses
across the Group of £125.6 million (2010: £171.2 million) for
which no deferred tax asset has been recognised. Of these
losses, £68.5 million (2010: £99.4 million) arise in Germany,
albeit a significant proportion have been generated in statutory
entities that no longer have significant levels of trade.
The remaining unrecognised tax losses relate to other
loss-making overseas subsidiaries.
Earnings per share and dividend
The adjusted* diluted earnings per share has increased in line
with profit growth by 13.3 per cent from 33.0 pence in 2010 to
37.4 pence in 2011. The statutory diluted earnings per share
growth of 20.6 per cent was greater due to exceptional tax
items in 2011.

The Board is recommending a final dividend of 10.5 pence per
share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 15.0 pence
(2010: 13.2 pence). Subject to the approval of shareholders at the
Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’) on 18 May 2012, the proposed
dividend will be paid on 15 June 2012 to shareholders on the
register as at 18 May 2012.
Acquisitions
During 2011, the Group acquired three subsidiaries. On 1 April
2011, the Group acquired 100 per cent of Top Info SAS in France.
The Top Info business was merged with our Computacenter
France business on 30 December 2011 , and as a consequence
no longer has its own separable cash flows. Accordingly the
goodwill arising on the acquisition has been tested against the
combined Computacenter France cash generating unit (‘CGU’).
On 11 April 2011, the Group acquired 100 per cent of HSD
Consult GmbH, which has been combined in the year within the
Computacenter Germany CGU.
On 21 July 2011, the Group acquired 80 per cent of Damax AG in
Switzerland, and agreed to purchase the remaining 20 per cent by
mid-2015 for a consideration dependent upon the achievement of
agreed performance criteria over the next three and a half years.
Due to the nature of the transaction, the Group has present access
to the benefits associated with the remaining 20 per cent of
Damax. The Group has recorded this acquisition as a linked
transaction, and has accordingly consolidated 100 per cent of
the results of Damax since the acquisition date and estimated
the fair value deferred consideration payable.
Cash flow
The Group’s trading net funds position takes account of factor
financing and current asset investments but excludes customer
specific financing. There is an adjusted cash flow statement
provided in note 30 that restates the statutory cash flow to take
account of this definition.
Net funds excluding CSF reduced marginally from £139.4 million
to £136.8 million by the end of the year. The Group continued to
deliver strong cash generation from its operations in 2011, with
adjusted operating cash flow of £95.5 million (2010: £108.2 million).
In the year our outflow of cash included over £40 million
on specific strategic cash investments, such as the remaining
expenditure on our ERP implementation, the purchase of a new
freehold facility for our RDC recycling business for approximately
£11 million, and net cash outflow on acquisitions of £25.3 million.
When taking these investments into account together with tax
and dividends, our net funds excluding CSF reduced marginally
in the year.
Whilst the cash position remains robust, the Group continued
to benefit from the extension of a temporary improvement in
credit terms with a significant vendor, equivalent to £45 million
at 31 December 2011, an increase of approximately £7 million
from December 2010.
CSF reduced in the year from £28.4 million to £23.1 million partially
due to a decision to restrict this form of financing in the light of
the credit environment and reduced customer demand. Taking
CSF into account, total net cash at the end of the year was
£113.6 million, compared to £111.0 million at the start of the year.
Customer specific financing
In certain circumstances, the Group enters into customer contracts
that are financed by leases or loans. The leases are secured only

The committed CSF financing facilities are thus outside of the
normal working capital requirements of the Group’s product resale
and service activities.
Capital management
Details of the Group’s capital management policies are included
within note 26 to the financial statements.
Financial instruments
The Group’s financial instruments comprise borrowings, cash
and liquid resources, and various items that arise directly from its
operations. The Group enters into hedging transactions, principally
forward exchange contracts or currency swaps. The purpose of
these transactions is to manage currency risks arising from the
Group’s operations and its sources of finance. The Group’s policy
remains that no trading in financial instruments shall be undertaken.
The main risks arising from the Group’s financial instruments
are interest rate, liquidity and foreign currency risks. The overall
financial instruments strategy is to manage these risks in order
to minimise their impact on the financial results of the Group.
The policies for managing each of these risks are set out below.
Further disclosures in line with the requirements of IFRS 7 are
included in note 25 to the financial statements.

The value of contracts where service is provided in multiple
countries has increased. The Group aims to minimise this
exposure by invoicing the customer in the same currency in
which the costs are incurred. For certain contracts, the Group’s
committed contract costs are not denominated in the same
currency as its sales. In such circumstances, for example where
contract costs are denominated in South African Rand, the Group
eliminates currency exposure for a foreseeable future period on
these future cash flows through forward currency contracts. In
2011, the Group recognised a charge of £0.5 million through other
comprehensive income in relation to the changes in fair value of
related forward currency contracts, where the cash flow hedges
relating to firm commitments were assessed to be highly effective.

Credit risk
The Group principally manages credit risk through management of
customer credit limits. The credit limits are set for each customer
based on the creditworthiness of the customer and the anticipated
levels of business activity. These limits are initially determined when
Interest rate risk
the customer account is first set up and are regularly monitored
The Group finances its operations through a mixture of retained
thereafter. In France, credit risk is mitigated through a credit
profits, cash and short-term deposits, bank borrowings and finance insurance policy which applies to non-Government customers and
leases and loans for certain customer contracts. The Group’s bank provides insurance for approximately 50 per cent of the relevant
borrowings, other facilities and deposits are at floating rates. No
credit risk exposure.
interest rate derivative contracts have been entered into.
There are no significant concentrations of credit risk within the
Liquidity risk
Group. The Group’s major customer, disclosed in note 3 to the
The Group’s policy is to ensure that it has sufficient funding and
financial statements consists of entities under the control of the
facilities in place to meet any foreseeable peak in borrowing
UK Government. The maximum credit risk exposure relating to
requirements. The Group’s positive net funds position
financial assets is represented by carrying value as at the balance
was maintained throughout 2011, and at the year-end was
sheet date.
£136.8 million excluding CSF, and £113.6 million including CSF.
Going concern
Due to strong cash generation over the past three years, the
As disclosed in the Directors’ report, the Directors have a
Group is now in a position where it can finance its requirements
reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to
from its cash balance. As a result, the Group has not renewed a
continue its operations for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, they
number of overdraft and factoring facilities during 2010 and 2011,
continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the
but has implemented a cash pooling arrangement for the majority
consolidated financial statements.
of Group entities.
At 31 December 2011, the Group had available uncommitted
overdraft of £15.9 million (2010 uncommitted overdraft and
factoring facilities of £15.5 million). The Group’s committed facility
expired in May 2011, and was not renewed.
The Group manages its counterparty risk by placing cash on
deposit across a panel of reputable banking institutions, with no
more than £50.0 million deposited at any one time except for UK
Government backed counterparties where the limit is £70.0 million.
Customer specific financing facilities are committed.

Tony Conophy
Finance Director
12 March 2012

Overview
Overview
Business review
Business review

Whilst CSF is repaid through future customer receipts,
Computacenter retains the credit risk on these customers and
ensures that credit risk is only taken on customers with a strong
credit rating.

Foreign currency risk
The Group operates primarily in the UK, Germany, France and
with smaller operations in Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and South
Africa. The Group uses a cash pooling facility to ensure that its
operations outside of the UK are adequately funded, where
principal receipts and payments are denominated in Euros.
In each country a small proportion of the sales are made to
customers outside those countries. For those countries within
the Eurozone, the level of non-Euro denominated sales is very
small and, if material, the Group’s policy is to eliminate currency
exposure through forward currency contracts. For the UK,
the majority of sales and purchases are denominated in
Sterling and any material trading exposures are eliminated
through forward currency contracts.

Governance

on the assets that they finance. Whilst the outstanding balance
of CSF is included within the net funds for statutory reporting
purposes, the Group excludes CSF when managing the net funds
of the business, as this CSF is matched by contracted future
receipts from customers.

19



20


Protecting
our business

Risk management

Risk management framework
Board of Directors

Audit Committee

Strategic objectives

Group Risk Committee
CEO, CFO, MD UK Sales,
MD UK Operations, Group Risk Manager,
Group IS Director, CEO Germany,
Director General France

Strategic Risk
Log (‘SRL’)

External advice

Business Risk
Assessment (‘BRA’)

Internal Audit

CC Business Leaders

Strategic objectives
Accelerating
the growth of
our contractual
services
business

Principal risks

•

•
•

Principal mitigations

•

•

•

Reducing cost
through increased
efficiency and
industrialisation
of our service
operations

Our offerings may transpire to be
uncompetitive within the market or an
unforeseen technology shift occurs where
the market develops appetite for different
equipment and solutions to those offered.
We potentially do not dedicate correct
levels of resource to satisfy our customers’
varying needs for innovation.
Our growth aspirations are impacted by
the economic climate and with a certain
level of uncertainty about a full return to
economic stability in the short term; there
is the potential for reduced capital
expenditure from customers.

•

There may be an absence of appropriate
investment into automated tools and other
efficiency measures, which effectively fails
to reduce the need for manual intervention
activity and thus could impact upon our
competitive position or a suitable return
on these investments is not achieved.

We formally review all lost bids and most
won bids to ensure that we keep abreast
of customer expectation from their IT
services and solutions provider. We
formally review our internal service
providers against price points and
benchmarked service quality standards.
We launched a Customer Value Scorecard
to identify our larger customers’ innovation
needs and we are currently implementing
the ‘continual improvement framework’ to
detect where innovation needs are arising.
We operate within different economies
that are affected differently at different
times. We also believe that our offerings
are targeted specifically towards being
beneficial to our customers who are
looking to reduce costs.

•

The industrialisation and investment
review board convenes monthly and
monitors the return on investment as well
as the planned KPI improvements and
considers future investments and
improvements taking account of feedback
from multiple sources within the business.


Maximising the
return on working
capital and freeing
working capital
where not
optimally used

•

Following significant progress over the
years in reducing working capital through
the disposal of the distribution business,
as well as other working capital
optimisation initiatives, a material increase
in working capital demand could harm
further progress in this regard.

Growing our
profit margin
through increased
services and
high-end supply
chain sales

•

•

•

•

There is continued focus on working
capital controls in each country at all
levels, supplemented by rigorous target
based incentivisation system. In future,
the ERP system will facilitate a common
approach to working capital management,
across the Group, through best practice
and other working capital control
adoption.

The Committee this year benchmarked the SRL against an
external Global Risk Management Survey and of the top 10
external findings, the SRL had captured eight, which provides
some comfort that our identification process is aligned to that
being undertaken in other organisations. Those generic risks
more widely identified and also listed on our SRL include:
business continuity risks associated with IT operational failures;
our obligations under regulatory and compliance legislation; data
protection exposures; and the consequences of expanding the
delivery of our offerings to our customers, globally. Certain risks
on the SRL have been identified as posing potential threat to
our strategic objectives and some of these are detailed below.

•

•

•

Ensuring the
successful
implementation
of the Group-wide
ERP system

Resource demands could arise when
transitioning multiple new service
business opportunities at or around the
same time.
Our sales teams could lose focus on our
defined propositions and target market
resulting in the ‘over promising’ on the
scope of services offered to new
customers or making non-standard
offerings during the life of a contract. This
could result in margin erosion, customer
dissatisfaction or delays in the initial
phases of the contract.
Our vendor partners compete in the
high-end sales environment and
approach our customers directly.

•

We have an established transition and
transformational activity programme with
access to additional resources as
necessary utilising our Master Vendor
relationship which caters for bridging any
capability and capacity concerns that
may arise.
Governance boards and a tool, through
which all relevant parties have to engage,
aim to prevent any non-standard offerings.
All change management will be reviewed
by a governance board and if material, the
same approval process as for new
contracts will be initiated.
Senior management work very closely
with our leading partners and customers
in order to continually promote and
protect the value we bring to the
customer. Computacenter’s customers
demand optimisation of their IT
infrastructures and to this end, vendor
independent solutions are imperative.

•

•

•

With a project of this scale there is the
potential that during early transition
operational issues could occur which
impact on customer service levels and
ultimately, overall financial performance
of the Company.
After the ERP system is fully embedded
there is the potential that the full return on
this investment is not realised.

The transition of the various systems
have been phased over a period of circa
three years, with the other countries
providing back-up support to the
transitioning country. Lessons learnt from
2011 transitions in Germany and the UK
will be deployed in future countries.
Return on investment plans have been
developed and will be built into the
internal governance structure at all
relevant levels, and targets have already
been included in senior management
pay plans.

Overview
Overview
Business review
Business review

Ownership for the top 20 strategic risks is allocated across
the GRC and monitored at quarterly scheduled meetings. The
agenda of items considered at a GRC meeting also includes:
Health and Safety, Insurance and Liabilities, Business Continuity
and IT Disaster Recovery, Corporate Sustainable Development
and Internal Audit reports. The Group Internal Auditor aims to
provide the Group Audit Committee with feedback on the risk

Assessing risk is not only about what is foreseeable. An exercise
was undertaken this year by the Committee to consider the
unthinkable risks, or ‘black swans’ and to contemplate their
impact on business objectives and how best to mitigate. The
disaster recovery plans have undergone review following this
study, as further opportunity of minimising post-disaster
chaos have, in certain instances, been identified.

Governance

The GRC is responsible for compiling the Strategic Risk Log
(‘SRL’) annually, a ‘top down’ list of unwanted situations which
could prevent the strategic objectives, as established by the
Board, from reaching the desired outcome. These risks also
include the possibility for failure in maximising upside potential.
The SRL is compiled by the Committee with facilitated guidance
from an external risk consultancy, every two years, as well as
the ‘bottom up’ Business Risk Assessment (‘BRA’), as delivered
by all the business leaders across the Group.

control measures being monitored and assurance that the
assessment of risk remains active, at a senior level. The Group
Internal Auditor additionally reports on findings, following internal
audits of areas impacted by risks captured on the risk logs.


The ongoing identification and monitoring of risks are undertaken
by our Group Risk Committee (‘GRC’), the members of which
include: the Group Chief Executive, Group Finance Director,
Managing Director UK Sales, Managing Director UK Operations,
Company Secretary and Group Risk Manager, Chief Executive of
Germany, Director General of France and the Group Internal
Auditor.

21

22


Corporate Sustainable
Development (‘CSD’)

Responsible
growth

Our commitment
Computacenter recognises that our people and the societies
and environment within which we operate are integral
contributors to delivering value and supporting our key strategic
aspirations. Whilst we pride ourselves on the provision of
technologically advanced information solutions, we recognise
that our business occurs within a wider community including
employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, business
partners and the natural environment as a whole.
Since 2007, the Group has been committed to the 10 core
principles of the United Nations Global Compact (‘UNGC’), aimed
at demonstrating ethical, environmental and social responsibility
towards our own workforce and in our business interaction within
each community and country we operate. In 2009, the Group
published its first Communication on Progress (‘CoP’) on the
UNGC website, followed by our second and third CoP in April
2010 and 2011. Additionally, the Group retains its membership to
the FTSE4Good Index Series. The Group’s CSD Policy is annually
reviewed by the highest governance structure, the Group Board
and the policy is executed and monitored through the facilitation
of the Group CSD Committee, constituted out of representatives
from across the Group as a whole.
Integral to our commitment, we strive to incorporate the UNGC
and its principles into our strategy, culture and day-to-day
operations. We do this through the development, communication
and implementation of relevant policies to manage and monitor our
progress towards these principles. Since our commitment to the
core principles, we have adopted and revised a number of policies
and procedures across the Group.
We support public accountability and will publish, as part of our
annual Business Review, a Report on Progress. We are also
communicating our sustainability efforts and achievements with all
our shareholders in the Annual Report and Accounts, as well as
our Company website. We believe that what is not measured is not
effectively managed and in line with this, we are endeavouring to
identify at least one standard indicator (‘SI’), as recognised by the
Global Reporting Initiative (‘GRI’), per core principle. In this regard,
we have made progress, but there remains more work to be done
over the coming years.
Computacenter will seek to collaborate with and encourage our
suppliers, contractors and customers to operate in a similar socially
responsible manner, as guided by the UNGC 10 principles. We
have already secured support from the majority of our suppliers and
contractors, but we acknowledge that this will be an ongoing task.

Mike Norris
Chief Executive Officer

Related subjects:
Directors’ report - page 43
Governance - page 28

Holding virtual meetings boosts productivity
and cuts costs for Computacenter
Computacenter’s internal sales team needs to be able to respond
quickly to customer requests to ensure the success of the
business. This requires excellent internal communication and
collaboration, with meetings often being arranged at short notice.
With the sales team based at eight UK offices and also remote
locations, face-to-face meetings were costly, time-consuming
and damaging to the environment. Adrian Priest, Internal Sales
Director for Computacenter, comments: “We are an extremely
busy team without time to spare. Frequent travel not only
increases expenses and has a negative effect on the environment
but also impacts productivity.”
To address these challenges, Computacenter has implemented
an audio-visual solution that enables staff to conduct virtual
meetings regardless of their location. Based on interactive
whiteboards and data conferencing software, the solution enables
meeting participants to share data remotely and automatically
save meeting notes from the whiteboard to eliminate the need
for manual note-taking.
By reducing the need for travel by more than 60 per cent,
Computacenter has not only been able to decrease its costs but
also minimise its environmental impact. Enhanced communication
and less time spent travelling also helps the sales team to
improve productivity.
These factors all help Computacenter to continue to deliver
a responsive and efficient service to its customers while at
the same time safeguarding profitability. “In addition to helping
us to be more cost-effective, the solution helps my team to work
effectively as a single unit, despite the geographical spread,”
adds Adrian. “This is critical for the performance of the team,
and the overall success of the business as a whole.”
Following the successful internal implementation,
Computacenter has helped a number of customers deploy
similar solutions to enable them to also reduce travel, cut costs
and minimise carbon emissions.

Introduction and Overview of 2011:
During the whole of 2011, Computacenter was actively involved
in designing and implementing a Group-wide ERP SAP system.
Much resource and time was dedicated to this project and we are
proud, in light of these demands, to have managed to maintain our
CSD standards and not deteriorate. Our longer-term aspirations
are however, to improve our CSD standards and as this project

23

moves closer to conclusion over the first half of 2013, our focus
will again turn towards improvement targets. We are also
encouraged that the ERP system is designed, as the ‘go-live’
phases embed, to deliver accurate Group-wide data, potentially
more aligned to the GRI score card allowing us to take a better
view on our most suitable SIs to report against.

Overview
Overview


Human rights
2011 objectives and achievements – SI not formalised
• Maintain human rights awareness through the Company’s
‘Principles of Employee Behaviour’
• Germany will launch a comprehensive life balance awareness
programme, the LEO programme, aimed at engaging
employees within the second half of their careers, as well as
young professionals
✓ Human rights protection policies and procedures reviewed
across the Group and incorporated into induction and new
starter handbooks

✓ LEO programme first launched in Germany, with successful
delivery of the first module
✓ A successful assessment in 2011 confirmed that the UK
Company exceeded the Investors in People standards required
2012 objectives
• Maintain human rights awareness through the Company’s
‘Principles of Employee Behaviour’

Business review
Business review

1. Support and respect the internationally proclaimed human rights – Human Rights

✓ 25 per cent of staff in France completed the Stress Prevention
course
✓ Stress Awareness and Prevention workshops delivered to
more than 550 staff members in Germany
2012 objectives
• Maintain the AIR at below 2.5 and the (AFR) at below 1.0
• 100 per cent of French management to attend the Stress
Prevention awareness workshop
• Establish an e-learning platform in Germany to facilitate the
availability to all of a variety of health and safety presentation
awareness modules
*

AIR – Number of accidents per 1,000 employees.
AFR – Number of accidents per 100,000 working hours.

2. Ensure that the Group is not complicit in human rights abuses
• Maintain key and new vendor assessments through the vendor
conformance questionnaire and monitoring of the returns
✓ The Supplier Assessment questionnaires returned are all
reviewed for Bribery exposure and this information is shared
between the various companies in the Group

2012 objectives
• Continue to maintain key and new vendor assessments
through the questionnaire and monitoring of the returns

Labour standards
3. Uphold employees’ freedom of association
• Maintain current status and reassess vendor conformance,
through the review of questionnaire responses
✓ New vendors continue to be required to complete the vendor
conformance questionnaire and information is shared across
the Group

•

Embed the new processes involved in the Works Council
in Germany
✓ New Works Council activities and processes initiated
2012 objectives


2011 objective and achievements – SIs = AIR and AFR*
• Maintain the Accident Incident Rate (‘AIR’) at below 2.5 and
the Accident Frequency Rate (‘AFR’) below 1.0
✓ In the UK, the average AIR increased to 0.95 (2010: 0.61)
and the average AFR increased to 0.52 (2010: 0.34)
✓ In Germany, the average AIR reduced to 1.35 (2010: 1.53)
and the average AFR declined to 0.76 (2010: 0.86)
✓ In France, the average AIR reduced to 1.36 (2010: 1.40)
and the average AFR remained at 0.78 (2010: 0.78)
• Retain BS OHSAS 18001 and UVDB certifications –
BS OHSAS 18001 and UVDB certifications retained
• Progress implementation of the MASE Health and Safety
management system in France present Stress Prevention
awareness sessions in France and Germany
✓ MASE implementation continues in France

Governance

1. Support and respect the internationally proclaimed human rights – Health and Safety

24


Corporate Sustainable Development (‘CSD’) continued

4. Eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory labour
✓ New vendors continue to be required to complete the vendor
conformance questionnaire and information is shared across
the Group
• Select supplier audits will be conducted in France, in order to
verify sustainable development conformance levels and these
activities will be monitored quarterly by utilising the GRI
scorecard

✓ Initial conformance verification audits have commenced in
France, but GRI scorecard measurement postponed
2012 objectives

5. Abolish all forms of child labour
• Continue to develop young careers
✓ In the UK, the graduate development programme was
repeated with a further intake of 12 graduates. The
Handelsblatt und Junge Carriere’s seal of a Fair Company
was retained at Computacenter Germany and the Exploras
programme, which regulates the conditions for working
students at Computacenter Germany, was continued

2012 objective
• Continue to develop young careers and seek assurance from
all key vendors that no child labour is deployed, on behalf of
the Group, in non-European geographies

6. Support equality in respect of employment and occupation and eliminate all discrimination
2011 objectives and achievements – SI = Increase in staff
utilisation of the UK Benefits@Computacenter website
• A work life balance intranet portal, including family support,
Balance@Computacenter, launched in Germany, will
be expanded and its availability promoted during 2011
✓ This portal has been expanded to promote the 24-hour
support ‘hot-line’ employee assistance programme
• The Benefits@Computacenter offering will be further
promoted in the UK
✓ Employee awareness and participation in the MyBenefits
scheme increased to a 73 per cent uptake
• France’s HR team will improve the recruitment of
minority groups
✓ 39 per cent more seniors in full-time employment and circa
20 per cent more disabled in full time employment since 2010

2012 objectives
• Re-evaluate the benefits plan in the UK for competitiveness
from suppliers
• Consider a programme in the UK to focus on ‘work-life’
balance
• Increase awareness about the availability of the Employee
Assistance Scheme (‘EAP’) in the UK
• Prepare the UK pension scheme for the automatic enrolment
process
• Progress the gender equality agreement reached with the
employee representatives in France
• Sign up to the French government initiative, Parenthood
Charter and commence initial actions aligned to the charter’s
principles

Environment
7. Apply precaution to activities which can impair the environment
• Proceed with the installation of the Voltage Optimisation
devices at Hatfield and monitor the electricity consumption
✓ Voltage Optimisation devices all fitted at Hatfield and despite
upwards pressure on consumption, due to a large project, total
consumption at the Group head office location reduced from
the 2010 consumption of 2.172 million kWh to 2.134 million kWh.
• Proceed with the viability study for the installation of a 15 to
20 kW wind turbine installation at Hatfield
✓ The viability study confirmed that very limited consumption
reduction would result and the cost of installing a turbine at
the Hatfield location, not justifiable
• Achieve certification to level 1 to the 1, 2, 3 Environmental
Standards in France
✓ ISO 14001 Level 1 certification achieved
• Expand on the participation in Germany in the Volkswagen
Green Fleet programme

✓ 80 per cent of all Volkswagen vehicles in the fleet in Germany
have ‘blue-motion’ technology
• Monitor and work towards improving the level of CO2
emissions from the vehicles of the UK Company
✓ The average CO2 emitted per UK fleet vehicle reduced
from 168 g/km in 2009, to 146 g/km in 2010 and further
to 129 g/km – a reduction of nearly 12 per cent
2012 objectives
• Continue to monitor the energy consumption levels at
the Group head office and the CO2 emissions of the UK
and Germany vehicles, with the aim of improving further
• Achieve certification to ISO 14001 level 2 of the 1, 2, 3
Environmental Standards in France
• Relocate French head office and warehouse to ‘friendlier’
environment facilities

Supporting our customers on their journey

Supporting our customers on their journey

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (18)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (7)

Similar to Supporting our customers on their journey

Similar to Supporting our customers on their journey (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Supporting our customers on their journey